Halloween display on Ravinia Glen Place is a kick for kids

Mom puts up decorations for her girls though she isn't a fan of Oct. 31 holiday

October 25, 2012|By Susan Berger, Special to the Tribune

Lexi and Dani Cohn, ages 9 and 13, love Halloween. Their mom is not a fan. But Leslie and Michael Cohn puts up a display every year because their daughters enjoy it. (Susan Berger, Chicago Tribune)

Leslie Cohn is not a fan of Halloween. But her kids are.

"I really hate Halloween," she said. "I find it scary — I don't like costumes and think it's stupid. I am totally a party pooper."

But everyone in her neighborhood along Ravinia Glen Place in Highland Park knows that the season of ghosts and goblins has arrived when an elaborate display emerges in the yard of Leslie and Michael Cohn. The mom said her 9- and 13-year-old girls, Lexi and Dani, love it — and so do trick-or-treaters.

It started about five years ago with just a scarecrow, Cohn said, and then a sign and few scarecrow people and it just kept growing.

Everyone in the neighborhood loves their decorations, Cohn said. She has always gone out of her way for her children, she said, because just one street over is Marion Avenue, the most desirable destination on the Cohns' part of town because it is a lengthy residential street. (On the other side of town, Cavell Avenue is the street to hit, Cohn said.)

Cohn is known for always handing out four or five candy bars to each child — that and the elaborate displays keep the trick-or-treaters coming.

A couple of years ago, the Cohns decided to add a fat witch — a witch they originally decided was pregnant with twins. But the twins became triplets and soon there were three baby witches flying on broomsticks above their house.

But this year, the handyman who makes the decorations and hangs them is recovering from surgery. So they had to leave out the baby witches this year.

Cohn said Lexi and Dani love the display and love that their friends know the minute it goes up.